Rain Partier

JSA 21 -- and the stuff hits the fan as everybody dogpiles on Gog and he starts to de-gift the JSA; man, but it took SO LONG to get here...real pretty (and i'm sorry, but i STILL prefer Ordway over Eaglesham), real good; loved it

TRINITY 27 -- Konvikt joins the evil Trinity, Gangbuster brings Hawkman his wings, Tarot and Charity talk some more, and Morgaine breaks her henchmen out of jail; still no sign of the Big 3, and I'm still waiting to see Alfred's group do something; still well-written, still pretty, but starting to drag a bit

SECRET INVASION 8 -- as usual, a mixed bag from Bendis and Marvel; on the plus side, the end reveal of the return of the villains is MUCH-needed, i'm glad Tony's finally paying the price for being such a fuckhead during CW and maybe what transpires now will serve as (at least in my eyes) a redemption arc for him, and i'm SO glad Clint and Bobbi are reunited; that said, on the negative, almost every character Bendis write is unrecognizable to me, i REFUSE to believe the Marvel U is really stupid enough to put Norman in charge of anything (talk about putting the fox in charge of the henhouse), DOOM just would not be sitting at that table and allowing Norman to talk to him like that (neither would Namor or Loki for that matter), and don't get me started on Jan's death; some cool stuff happened, but it's YET AGAIN just an example of one event serving as the lead-in to the next one, and the whole thing reeks of stupidity; liked and disliked it

JSA 21 -- and the stuff hits the fan as everybody dogpiles on Gog and he starts to de-gift the JSA; man, but it took SO LONG to get here...real pretty (and i'm sorry, but i STILL prefer Ordway over Eaglesham), real good; loved it

TRINITY 27 -- Konvikt joins the evil Trinity, Gangbuster brings Hawkman his wings, Tarot and Charity talk some more, and Morgaine breaks her henchmen out of jail; still no sign of the Big 3, and I'm still waiting to see Alfred's group do something; still well-written, still pretty, but starting to drag a bit

SECRET INVASION 8 -- as usual, a mixed bag from Bendis and Marvel; on the plus side, the end reveal of the return of the villains is MUCH-needed, i'm glad Tony's finally paying the price for being such a fuckhead during CW and maybe what transpires now will serve as (at least in my eyes) a redemption arc for him, and i'm SO glad Clint and Bobbi are reunited; that said, on the negative, almost every character Bendis write is unrecognizable to me, i REFUSE to believe the Marvel U is really stupid enough to put Norman in charge of anything (talk about putting the fox in charge of the henhouse), DOOM just would not be sitting at that table and allowing Norman to talk to him like that (neither would Namor or Loki for that matter), and don't get me started on Jan's death; some cool stuff happened, but it's YET AGAIN just an example of one event serving as the lead-in to the next one, and the whole thing reeks of stupidity; liked and disliked it

Wrasslin' Fan

Batman was a mess that was weird for the sake of being weird and as a result was total crap. It had nearly no connection to RIP, despite saying it's an epilogue, and would make 0 sense to anyone not reading FC and well versed in the New Gods. I couldn't agree with chap more on this one.

Iron Fist continues to be great and we learn that the 8th city of Heaven is more like the 1st city of Hell. Great book, but like chap I hate the art.

Trinity is starting to drag. I like the story, but it feels like very little has happened in the last 10 issues or so and it needs to stop dragging and bring the Trinity back and get back to the big story of Krona. Plus we haven't seen the invading fleet of Despero or how John Stewart is dealing with the Void Hound in a long time either. They set so many plates spinning, but are ignoring all but one of them and pretty soon it's going to all fall apart because those others are wobbling a lot by now.

Terror Titans is tons of fun and the last page is filled with awesomeness. I can't wait for the rest of this series and for Static to join Blue Beetle and Red Devil on the coolest Titans roster in a long time.

X-Infenus was fun. I wasn't sold on it until the preview pages showed up earlier this week, but I'm glad I bought it. Good book, and the council of devils in Hell was a highlight of the week. I hope to see more of them, and not just in this story. It made the table of villains at the end of SI look like jobbers, at least based on power levels.

Speaking of SI, I enjoyed #8. Janet is dead, but in a way that is easy as hell to correct. There's no body and she was taken away by a magic tornado. Thor was OK, but I hate the way Tony has been handled by Bendis. He's been cast as a villain and as a guy the other heroes don't trust, and it just doesn't ring true. Here's hoping Fraction and Slott can rehab the character. The final page is lots of fun and the idea of Norman with lots of power is interesting. I felt that Emma was just an odd choice and that it should have been Magneto, and reading that interview with Bendis it sounds like that's what he wanted as well, but whatever. There's no way this team doesn't implode. The only folks I could see working together are Doom and Namor, Emma is probably a spy, Loki is Loki, Norman is insane, the Hood is all about himself (and Dormammu who shouldn't be trusted), and Doom and Namor know they are above everyone else in the room. It is nice to get the feeling that Dormammu will be important to two stories going on.

JSA finally seems to be going to the end game, and it was an exciting issue. It took way too long to get there, but I've enjoyed it for the most part. Still, it will be nice to see this story wrap up and see the team move on to new things.

One last book I'd like to mention is the Punisher Christmas Special. It was great and if you like Frank at all you should give it a look. Jason Aaron is an awesome writer and he didn't disappoint here. Basically Frank kills a bunch of mobsters in a bar and goes to kill a mob boss whose wife is giving birth. She hasn't given birth yet and assassins are on the way, so Frank takes the guy and his wife with him to a barn to help deliver the kid. People give chase, Frank fucks them up, a baby is born in a barn on Christmas, Frank makes the kid an orphan, Frank kills the guys that ordered the hit, and he drops the kid off with a priest that was willing to call out some gangsters in the bar at the start of the book. It's brutal, but it rings true to the character. No hanging from chandeliers, no neon, no silly BS, just Frank fucking up bad people.

Batman was a mess that was weird for the sake of being weird and as a result was total crap. It had nearly no connection to RIP, despite saying it's an epilogue, and would make 0 sense to anyone not reading FC and well versed in the New Gods. I couldn't agree with chap more on this one.

Iron Fist continues to be great and we learn that the 8th city of Heaven is more like the 1st city of Hell. Great book, but like chap I hate the art.

Trinity is starting to drag. I like the story, but it feels like very little has happened in the last 10 issues or so and it needs to stop dragging and bring the Trinity back and get back to the big story of Krona. Plus we haven't seen the invading fleet of Despero or how John Stewart is dealing with the Void Hound in a long time either. They set so many plates spinning, but are ignoring all but one of them and pretty soon it's going to all fall apart because those others are wobbling a lot by now.

Terror Titans is tons of fun and the last page is filled with awesomeness. I can't wait for the rest of this series and for Static to join Blue Beetle and Red Devil on the coolest Titans roster in a long time.

X-Infenus was fun. I wasn't sold on it until the preview pages showed up earlier this week, but I'm glad I bought it. Good book, and the council of devils in Hell was a highlight of the week. I hope to see more of them, and not just in this story. It made the table of villains at the end of SI look like jobbers, at least based on power levels.

Speaking of SI, I enjoyed #8. Janet is dead, but in a way that is easy as hell to correct. There's no body and she was taken away by a magic tornado. Thor was OK, but I hate the way Tony has been handled by Bendis. He's been cast as a villain and as a guy the other heroes don't trust, and it just doesn't ring true. Here's hoping Fraction and Slott can rehab the character. The final page is lots of fun and the idea of Norman with lots of power is interesting. I felt that Emma was just an odd choice and that it should have been Magneto, and reading that interview with Bendis it sounds like that's what he wanted as well, but whatever. There's no way this team doesn't implode. The only folks I could see working together are Doom and Namor, Emma is probably a spy, Loki is Loki, Norman is insane, the Hood is all about himself (and Dormammu who shouldn't be trusted), and Doom and Namor know they are above everyone else in the room. It is nice to get the feeling that Dormammu will be important to two stories going on.

JSA finally seems to be going to the end game, and it was an exciting issue. It took way too long to get there, but I've enjoyed it for the most part. Still, it will be nice to see this story wrap up and see the team move on to new things.

One last book I'd like to mention is the Punisher Christmas Special. It was great and if you like Frank at all you should give it a look. Jason Aaron is an awesome writer and he didn't disappoint here. Basically Frank kills a bunch of mobsters in a bar and goes to kill a mob boss whose wife is giving birth. She hasn't given birth yet and assassins are on the way, so Frank takes the guy and his wife with him to a barn to help deliver the kid. People give chase, Frank fucks them up, a baby is born in a barn on Christmas, Frank makes the kid an orphan, Frank kills the guys that ordered the hit, and he drops the kid off with a priest that was willing to call out some gangsters in the bar at the start of the book. It's brutal, but it rings true to the character. No hanging from chandeliers, no neon, no silly BS, just Frank fucking up bad people.

Wrasslin' Fan

Ben wrote:I like how everyone is pissed about Doom sitting at the table with Osborne and taking his shit.

As if he wouldn't be at the table without good reason.

Did it not occur to anyone that this is all probably some kind of setup for Doom to take control of the US govt and completely screw EVERYONE?

I figure something like that is definitely what's going to happen. My problem with the group is that they should all be smart enough to know that the others will screw them the first chance they get.

Take Emma. She's been a good guy for the last few years, and very publicly in Astonishing X-Men in particular. Why would they trust her to be on their side and not feeding info to Scott? And if she is in fact evil again and all the X-Men stuff was a swerve, why would you trust her not to have her own plans and totally fuck you over?

The same can be said of everyone else as well. There's no reason to trust anyone at that table to help anyone else.

Wrasslin' Fan

Ben wrote:I like how everyone is pissed about Doom sitting at the table with Osborne and taking his shit.

As if he wouldn't be at the table without good reason.

Did it not occur to anyone that this is all probably some kind of setup for Doom to take control of the US govt and completely screw EVERYONE?

I figure something like that is definitely what's going to happen. My problem with the group is that they should all be smart enough to know that the others will screw them the first chance they get.

Take Emma. She's been a good guy for the last few years, and very publicly in Astonishing X-Men in particular. Why would they trust her to be on their side and not feeding info to Scott? And if she is in fact evil again and all the X-Men stuff was a swerve, why would you trust her not to have her own plans and totally fuck you over?

The same can be said of everyone else as well. There's no reason to trust anyone at that table to help anyone else.

Outhouse Editor

some great reviews Chap. I really hope you don't mind if I also do a review for SI #8 in my column? I try to stay clear of the stuff you do, but I'd like to chime in on this one if it's alright?

"I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright.I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun more.I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive.I wish you enough pain so that the smallest joys in life appear much bigger.I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.I wish enough "Hello's" to get you through the final "Good-bye.."